celtic
by totallyterriblegamer
Summary: As this is my first book on fan fiction I'm looking for lots of feedback.


**Celtic**

* * *

**Bookbound**

There is a peaceful land beyond the hills and the moors, behind the mountains and the great forest. Found on a beautiful, lush countryside of grass and wheat, with a

dozen heart filled robins and cheerful sparrows. It was a little town, but for so little a town it does not matter, for the people there had big hearts. No child falls ill, for

friends and family would cure. None shall be poor for they do not need money. It was a place of peace and harmony. The Gallic people lived like this for many years

until the Celts of the far away land sought war. The druids were overpowered by what they thought was strength and leadership, but it was really lies and greed.

They gained many followers and led them to believe in their pretend magic. So the Gallic people followed them and stopped believing in peace and life. The forces of

the land forced the druids to the wasteland and put all their followers to the test. Many years had passed and the war long gone. The people of Greengrove (a lush

countryside) were still torn between magic and belief, and the way of harmony. The scars of destruction still blocking the light and letting darkness torment the minds

of its citizens. There was one small village and perhaps one special boy that may change the course of events and let joy, dreams and hope overcome these fears.

One who would let adventure and excitement into the land once again.

**Chapter 1 Arthur**

Arthur is a highly imaginative boy with amazing story telling abilities. He lives in a small town in a lush moor, near a mystical looking swamp. The town had a few small houses, a mill, a farm and a school. He was very athletic and skilled in sports. The little village didn't look like much at first sight, but like many secrets to find, you just have to look closer.

Arthur looked to the sky and the morning's bright, wavy, red colours. He waited for the spectacular crossing of the 3rd star of Tinaty-the smallest but most important star too announce the starting of the month of the moors. This is when Arthur was old enough to go with William (his friend) and his mother Willow to enter the Tinaty games. The star passed over Venus and hit the rings of Saturn, the sky turned green, then added blue and soon the sky was filled with all the colours of the rainbow. The rings of Saturn finished their unorganised 200 spin movement and the sky shook. The once scarlet sky turned to what looked like 10,000 stars squashed together in an array of glowing light. After approximately one minute, the white sky broke and rained down thousands of glass-like silver dust particals. They fell like small stars twinkling merrily. One by one, they fell and rested on the grass and whatever they could touch, leaving a dusty layer of frost. It was cold and yet welcoming. Arthur stayed for a while in nothing but his shorts, shirt, and a scarf that was slung over his cold, white skin. After about 30 minutes, he walked into his frost covered cabin to find his mother and William talking. William was very good at making a friendly conversation, but as soon as they saw Arthur looking pale and cold the conversation broke into a gasp. "Arthur, were you out all that time looking at the crossing?" Asked his mum. But before he could answer, his mother dashed off and returned with a cup of cocoa and cinnamon. "You could have gotten sick, you shouldn't have risked getting the flu or cold on such a big day like this, you should have just, um..." She had lost her train of thought but she quickly resumed. She said now in a very heartfelt voice, "I just want you to be happy and well. But how can I blame you, the crossing is quite an amazing sight and supposed to give you good luck, just like these". She gave him deerskin gloves. Inside was a beautiful blue crystal, bound to silk string by a light layer of tar. William had the same except his crystal was yellow.

Arthur and William went out into the frost covered garden, where the Tinaty ants were getting hunted by the dorugo (a small wild cat with a crest and boot shaped fur near their feet). Arthur and William greeted their neighbours, who were planting gum berries, troddle fruit and lilac lilies, all of which are Tinaty (winter) vegetations. Cody, Arthur's pet black jaguar was having fun rolling in the freshly fallen snow. "Boys! Could you run to the swamp and get me some gum from the sap," they could hear from the distance. They grinned a happy grin, then collected some stored gum berries. At the end of the field there was a mysterious swamp, shrouded in blue fog. It grew thick, dark trees. The two boys entered the swamp and wandered for quite some time. The deeper they went, the darker it got, until they came to a stone archway covered in vines and unwelcoming green glows that shone the cracks in the structure. The boys stopped and shouted, "Kaiga!" Nothing happened until the silence was suddenly broken with the wall crumbling down, revealing a beautiful lake decorated with geysers and leaves that had fallen from the Capricorn trees. William pointed to a particularly big Capricorn tree and said "Race you". The two friends dashed at a powerful, speedy pace towards the tree. The closer they came, the more they got urged on by their momentum and finally reached their goal and collided with the soft, slimy bark. Contact came when the cup shaped fruit (gum berry) was pushed firmly to the bark. Slowly you could see the cup filling up with gum and it eventually popped off and immediately shut itself closed. By the time they had returned home it was noon, they needed to be at the Tinaty games by 8 pm so they left straight away.

**Chapter 2 Greengrove**

The ride to Greengrove was long and unexciting; the statues of kings from the past towered above them with their thrones and crowns. When they reached the stone paved streets of The Kingdom of Greengrove the town Square was filled with other competitors. The competition was not real sport, it was like a magical talent show. A boy about their age was looking around for the inn where he needed to register for the games. He saw them and shouted. "Do you know where the register inn is? My family is waiting so I need to get there quick". William answered his question in a big yet friendly voice "Just up the street to the left". Just on the street the place was polluted with fire breathers, conjurors, sprites and swift winds. Arthur was dazzled but also thankful at the same time. Dazzled because of how good they were and thankful because he's in teenage league and the non magic league. Arthur was walking, wondering whether he would win and plunder the thousands of magical goods on offer. He stopped dead in his tracks when he realised that this place wasn't covered in ice and snow like his town was, Arthur shrugged and went on. As he was nearing the registry, he began to get nervous, and for the first time Arthur saw William's face was pale. As Arthur got closer, he could see that the inn was oversized in width and made of freshly, varnished oak wood. The doors were open, showing many strange, supernatural sights. A plate was walking over to its owner, but the boys weren't interested in what the plate was doing, they were interested in what was on it. Steak, chips, salad, and rich sauce-only the best of food, and then he saw the sign that overcame him with joy. _Free food to contestants and their family. _The boys hurried to the register and saw the boy from earlier. When it was their turn to register, the lady asked them some questions about themselves, like where they came from, date of birth, and their special they had unpacked the things and ate, they walked over to the boy. He wasn't short or tall and had caramel looking hair with strips of blonde. He wasn't tanned or pale; he was rather a shade of cream. He looked excited and nervous at the same time and his eyes looked like they couldn't wait to see every inch of this dazzling kingdom.

They all stepped outside to see the opening ceremony. A big stage was set up and the only thing missing was the leader of ceremonies. Suddenly, the leader of ceremonies appeared with the most amazing sight Arthur had ever seen, he was riding a broomstick! He touched ground and let his traditional ceremonial robe drape across the floor. His pointy black hat was sticking upright in the air, he had his arms folded and a black cat walking by his side. He reached inside his pocket and pulled out a silver, vine wand. He held the wand to the sky and began muttering a few words. Everybody looked up as a twister began to form and fire rose from the cracks in the ground. Dust rose to the sky and leaves were being disintegrated into psopt sickles (a millimetre sized orb that has the colour of the element from which it came). Water gushed through the middle of the twister, some getting pushed against the sides and rebounding twice as hard. The water and fire glowed making a natural phenomenon. The water exploded into a glazing scarlet colour. The twister froze the scarlet, red water into crystal like glaciers. The twister and fire became one and blazed in blue and green colours that engulfed the ice pillar. The fiery twister suddenly turned into wavy wisps that danced around the ice pillar. Arthur realised that the psopt sickles joined the fiery twister to make the wisps! And, somehow the dust joined the wisps and created star like balloons sailing across the land before them. The crowd's eyes were stuck to the elements as they transformed. The icy pillar started diminishing to a circular slab ice that was approximately 10 metres wide. Out of the slab's sides began rising four vine-like glaciers that were crisscrossing into a bendy pattern. At the top of the pillar there was a sculpture of an armoured Knight bowing on one knee. The icy knight had the crest of honour embedded in his shield, and his fine blade exactly matched the sword 'Excalibur' which Arthur had seen in a book. That means he is one of the royal decendents!

The leader of ceremonies raised his arms and said, "Thank you for gathering here today to witness the grand opening of the Greengrove's Crest of Kings' Annual Games. In these games you will be tested to the extremes of your skill, speed, quickness of thinking and your ability to dazzle the opponents, crowd and judges. The prize for competing is 200 solid gold coins to be spread amongst you! The reward for 3rd place is to pick 20 magical items and receive 500 gold coins! The reward for second place is... to handpick 50 magical prizes, a magic wand and 700 solid gold coins! 1st place deserves only the best...which is 100 magical items, a wand, the legendary Bow Lunable, and the mark of a true skilled person, the sword 'Excalibur' and 1000 pure gold coins! Whilst staying here, one contestant of each family will get a copy of _Time of Terror,_ a great book filled with secrets, sights you can only dream of, and danger beyond imagination." The crowd burst into applause as fireworks shot up into the sky exploding neon pictures that came to life.

**Chapter 3 Let the tournament begin**

Arthur was still wide awake at 1am when the book arrived. His eyes were red with purple beneath his eyelids. He read several chapters before settling under the covers of his bed and falling asleep. He dreamt of the wonderful book. Later that morning Arthur got out of bed and had a walk around the halls. They were empty and cold. Arthur walked around a curved corner that had light at the end. He walked through the light and saw an icy obstacle course filled with children around his age jumping and climbing, running and dodging. There were ice bars, snow traps and frosty walls that blocked your way. Ascending platforms reached to the sky. At the end there was a big jump down into a frosty tunnel that looked like the finish line. A sign said "_you're allowed to bring whatever you want but only things that you can wear"._ Arthur joined the others struggling desperately to even get past the first obstacle, an ice bar. Some people were wearing hiking boots to help climb and some were wearing grip shoes.

He climbed on to the top of the ice bars and ran quickly to get it over and done with. The snow traps were hidden so he couldn't could go straight over the snowfield without being very careful. Next were the walls that looked impossible to climb, but he ran up to the wall and used the force of the run up to hurl himself even higher. The gap in the middle was close and when he got over, Arthur used the force of his landing to produce an even bigger jump. Arthur landed on the first platform and kept jumping up and up. At the end there was just a giant downhill drop and only a few toboggans. He grabbed one and jumped down into the tunnel. In the middle of the track the tunnel split in to two. Arthur jumped off his toboggan and just grabbed the side of the drop. Arthur ran to the finish banner and ran straight through it expecting it to break in half. Instead, the banner disintegrated into sparkles, then remobilized.

It was almost time for the real challenge and Arthur was having warm cocoa. He liked Greengrove and didn't want to leave, because its people were nice...and there was such good food! Greengrove's beautiful land was a place he really felt at home. The plains, forest and streams, waterfalls and lakes were fantastic and full of nature and wildlife.

The boy that Arthur kept on seeing was named Leo and he got Arthur interested in strange objects and mythical creatures. Leo had showed him a magic spell. Although Arthur thought mortals couldn't use magic, Leo proved him wrong. Leo just said "mortals can use magic too. Example, _digahn decathe_".Five little hummingbirds appeared and chirped happily while flying about. "_Cugeh tihethe macugar setra_". A melody whistled through the wind and the birds turned into silver ornaments and dropped down to the ground under the force of gravity.

"Are they dead?"asked Arthur. "No, actually, they're dormant." Leo said, while he laid the silver birds on the ground and they shook back into life, their colourful feathers showing once again. "_Retfa le intropacodeth_." Leo whispered. The hummingbirds shot up into the sky and burst into feathers that began drifting to the ground.

**Chapter 4 Maze Game**

The ice game had been cancelled so a new game took its place, a maze game; Arthur had been practising for it and revising the rules _magic is allowed, no following others, no cheating and no items, no exceptions._ Arthur had a strategy; he would climb up a wall and would look ahead and jump to the top of the next wall. In just 1 hour he would be competing in front of millions of people so he didn't want to make a fool of himself, so he practised that whole hour nonstop until the announcer came in the room and led them to the starting line. The announcer counted "3, 2, 1, go!" Arthur slit his fingers into the cracks of the first stone wall and hoisted himself upwards. He reached the top and jumped over to the next wall, while running he saw two kids on the floor of the maze wandering around deciding which way to go. Arthur kept on going forwards towards an opening and a clearing he started sprinting and jumped of the last wall to the ground and realised there was no banner, he had gone the wrong way! Left or right, he didn't know, then he had an idea. "_Digahn decathe." _The five beautiful little hummingbirds danced happily and Arthur spoke, "do you know where the finish line is." The birds nodded and flew off swiftly to the right. Arthur followed the hummingbirds into a cave where the banner was sitting unbroken, he ripped through and was glad to know it didn't remobilise. Arthur was very tired and when the announcer shouted, "We have a winner", and streamers flew up into the air he was happy and felt good. A girl came second, she had long red hair and was wearing something like a peasants cloth and had tears in her eyes. Leo raced in making him third; Leo gave Arthur the smart thinking look when he saw the hummingbirds hovering above Arthur's head. Many more competitions came and past and Arthur got a good place in all of them. He was almost certain he would get a winners place.

The announcing of the winners was tomorrow and the only thing he was worried about was if he lost because of breaking some unknown rule. He barely slept that night and when morning came he was sleepy and afraid, Arthur walked out to the courtyard and over time the crowd started to appear, the 4 judges' eyes looked at him until the clock chimed 12:00 and everybody silenced. The judge spoke and said "These games have been tough and gruelling, and many are injured but now at this time injuries do not matter. My fellow judges and I have decided on 3 out of you 500 competitors to receive the 3 supreme places in this Greengrove's annual sport event. Please come up Jason Turner, Allison Bravery, and... Arthur Winters!" Arthur silently cheered himself on and said silently that he did well then walked nervously up on stage. "3rd place goes to ... Jason Turner! 2nd place goes to... Allison Bravery! And the most wanted and treasured place of all 1st place goes to Arthur Winters. Arthur looked shocked but like he knew it was going to happen.

Arthur was wondering about the prizes and when they would be coming and just as he pushed the amazing thought thought away from his mind the door opened and the prize deliverers walked in. They were dressed in typical grey work clothes and a peculiar hat. They carried in a big chart with only a voice recorder on it, a wand, a silk wrapped bow and sword and a big sack of coins. It turned out that the chart was charmed so when you spoke to it a list of magical items based on the key words appeared. (Kind of like Google.) Arthur chose his prizes carefully; he was particularly interested in the fire based items such as fire bangers, dragon breath, luxio capacitor, light catcher, star glazer and much more. He took his pick of a fantastic flying broomstick and took the first thing that catches his eye. Finally he finished and he stored all of the items in his backpack. Arthur held the sheathed sword Excalibur in his hand and read his book.

"Here is my chance, he is distracted, I will get the sword and free you" whispered Deualox subconsciously. "Logian nih forbearne conin perios." Deualox cast and a blue plasma gate began to form sucking the sleeping Arthur, his backpack and Excalibur into it! Arthur drifted across the room slowly being pulled by the plasmanium energy. "No!" Deualox shouted as he ran to grab the handle of Excalibur, but he only just touched the handle when Excalibur and Arthur disappeared through the gateway. Deualox moaned in sorrow and tears came down his face as he mumbled "I have failed you Hetheth, I have failed you."

**Chapter 4 The Ocupelus time**

"Hello." Arthur felt a hand on his shoulder. "Are you ok" Arthur heard a whispered voice of a boy talking. Arthur shook his head to wake up and see better then he stood up. "Where am I?" asked Arthur as he looked around at the unfamiliar sight.

"Greengrove, where else?" The boy answered.

"In the inn" he said puzzled "And where are the streets and towns, kingdoms and statues. And where is Excalibur?" Arthur looked around for the great sword.

"You mean the champion's sword, it's stuck in the stone as it always has been."

Arthur stumbled and fell over in pain and the boy helped him up. "Come with me and tell my family and I what happened." He led Arthur to a little town; Arthur remembered the look of it as home. He led him inside their wooden cabin and sat him down and when Arthur felt up to it he told them the whole story. After Arthur finished the boy asked "What are fire bangers."

"This" Arthur said as he pulled out a rocket shaped structure made of thick paper. Arthur yanked on the string at the bottom and sent the rocket flying in a straight line towards the roof and they all watched as it burst into sparks that scattered all across the room. Then Arthur remembered the lines in the book. _this land is Greengrove long ago in the time Excalibur was still solidly struck into a stone._ "How do you get out of a book?" Arthur asked randomly and broke the cheering and laughter.

"Well You would have to live through the book until it ends; usually you replace one of the main characters."

"Thanks very much but I must get going, now I have a quest, Excalibur, it's the only way back home." He stood up and turned towards the door

"But it's almost dark you should stay the night." Stated the boy's mother.

**Chapter 5 Tiragan, the city of thieves**

Howling the wind penetrated him severely, numbing his whole body exterminating the warmth left. Arthur gritted his teeth in an attempt to stop him shivering as the long and disturbing night passed in hours dragging out, Arthur remained awake unable to sleep through the noisy thunder and rain. Uncomfortable being the only way to describe his sleep as the family he was staying with were victims of theft (even though they had only little income). Arthur had settled down in the most comfortable and warm patch of wooden flooring he could find. He had only a thin, ragged sheet and Arthur very disappointed that he couldn't find anything to make his night more pleasant in his backpack (which was amazing due to all the valuables he had). Creaking, bucketing, thunder claps; all made the night miserable and unbearable. He trotted downstairs filled with dread as he saw a gang of thieves that thankfully were distracted. Curiously looking down the steps he caught an even more frightening glimpse of a scarred thief looking straight at him. Arthur made a quick withdrawal of his face. "Don't you know it's rude to eaves drop boy," The thief spoke through a toothy grin uncovering a scared Arthur, his chest tightened and he sneaked barely visible out of hiding. "You shouldn't of gone where you shouldn't be little boy," The man whispered in a cruel, cold-hearted chuckle as he turned to Arthur, unsheathing his chipped. "Little weaklings shouldn't play with the big boys," ignoring the last part Arthur was bubbling with rage.

"Did you call me a weakling?"Arthur questioned have yelling "well isn't that a first the guy insulting the young kid is going to be pummelled by a 'weakling'. Half of it was unmistakably the rage speaking, not Arthur, but it sure hit its mark. The thief forgetting all sign of practise and wickedness in his face and movements was replaced with anger and offense.

"Try me" coaxed the scared figure.

"Oh believe me I will" Arthur challenged. The man unsheathed his sword and Arthur pulled out a wand and held it behind his head the man charged at Arthur. Arthur dodged the man's unsophisticated swing and shouted, "Caliom". A million very defensive pixies gushed from the wands tip, the man got carried towards the roof and was hung on a chandelier left hopelessly hanging hands tied. "If you have any common sense you'll stay quite" exclaimed Arthur taking the man's sword.


End file.
